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Not funny: Cinnamon Challenge damaging teens’ lungs

Life was so simple back when parents only had to worry about their teens trying pot or cigarettes…

We have the University of Miami’s Dr. Steven E. Lipshultz and Dr. Judy Schaechter to thank for today’s parental public safety warning:

Cinnamon. In muffins: good. In lungs: bad.

DO NOT attempt to swallow dry, powdered cinnamon.

And if you have teens, repeat the warning. Several times. In that deep, “I’m-not-kidding” voice.

Why?

How does a trip to the hospital with a collapsed lung sound for starters?

Lipshultz and Schaechter, professors of pediatrics at UM’s Miller School of Medicine, write online April 22 in the journal Pediatrics, that You Tube is now rife with youngsters between 13 and 24 recording themselves attempting something called the Cinnamon Challenge.

Dejah Reed, an Ypsilanti, Mich., teen who was hospitalized for a collapsed lung after trying the cinnamon challenge. /

It goes like this: A tablespoon of dry ground cinnamon is ingested without water. This immediately causes said teen to erupt in a brown, billowy cloud of coughing, gagging and vomiting. Other teens laugh hysterically and share said videos with their pals.

In powdered form, the cellulose in cinnamon can get in the lungs, where it will neither break down nor biodegrade.

The result is inflammation, sores and even scarring.

It’s especially dangerous for people with asthma — for obvious reasons. Last year there were 222 calls to poison control centers related to cinnamon which involved an abuse situation; 14 of those calls were based in Florida, and one involved a pregnant young woman.

The issue here isn’t just cinnamon, said Wendy Stephan, a health educator with Miami Poison Control.

It’s that teen brain thing.

“The interesting thing about teen poisonings in general is this thing is done for the benefit of other kids, or for the entertainment value, where the person is made to be the center of attention,” Stephan said. “It’s a hallmark of teen poisonings that they happen in clusters.”

Based on the data, it appears the Cinnamon Challenge may be a meme that’s burning itself out, finally. There were only 20 calls to poison control centers nationwide in the first three months of 2013, she said. None of them were from Florida. Meme over? Let’s hope so.

“I think we have crossed over into the, ‘This is a stupid thing to do,’ mindset,” Stephan said. “There are other challenges. Look up the ‘salt and ice’ challenge.”

It’s the same mindset that drives teens to pop a random pill at a “pharm party,” a riskier behavior, she said.

“And that actually causes deaths. And not a few,” Stephan said. “It’s not as flashy or You-Tubable but it’s really dangerous.”

Stephan suggests parents take advantage of the Cinnamon Challenge publicity now to have a wider conversation with teens about making smarter decisions in the face of everybody-is-doing-it pressure, whether it’s cinnamon, cigarettes, alcohol or drugs.

“Really kids need to be thinking about, ‘What’s the worst that can happen?'” Stephan said. “Kids can call the poison control center, too. It is confidential.”